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A new Netflix documentary will feature David Attenborough telling the story of Pablo, a mountain gorilla he met as a small 3-year-old who grew into the silverback leader of his own group. From the director of the documentary My Octopus Teacher, it will be available on April 17th.
MY FAVOURITE SILLIES! - Bonobos (Pan paniscus)
The Bonobo is a great ape that’s native to the Democratic Republic of Congo. They’re known most for their strong and complex social structures.
Why are they my favourite?
Feminism <3
Bonobos have a matriarchal hierarchy. Females dominate the social structure and is maintained through strong social bonds created by grooming and complex language and interaction, to form coalitions among the females that then can collectively suppress male aggression, and aggression from females lower in the hierarchy. This is what helps make Bonobo society as peaceful as it is. Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss.
BROTHER.
Bonobos are one of the closest living relatives to the human, next to the chimpanzee, sharing 98.7% of DNA with us. Bonobos, chimpanzees and humans share a common ancestor that we only split from 6-8 million years ago! The similarities are so staggering that looking at a bonobo and human skull side by side can almost look uncanny.
Wave that rainbow flag!
Bonobos have the highest homosexuality percentage of all primate species. And are one of the running contenders for highest homosexuality rate among a species worldwide. They’re just very gay animals, I don’t know what to tell you.
Make love, not war (literally).
It’s estimated that a whopping 75% of all bonobo sexual interaction is non reproductive, diplomatic sexual activity rather than reproductive. This is because sexual activity is an integral part of solving conflict among social groups and individuals alike. I just find it really funny that this is about the only type of bonobo behavioural study you’re going to get from google scholar.
Life stays fun!
Bonobos engage in play even in adult life. While this is common for both Chimps and Bonobos, Bonobo play differs throughout their life while Chimp play often stays the same throughout adult life - with chase, and rough and tumble. Bonobos also engage in chase behaviour and a little rough and tumble throughout life, but in younger Bonobos is a lot more present than in adulthood, and much rougher than the play engaged in during adulthood. Adult Bonobos often play a little gentler, though they do have their moments, and often include sexual elements into play to encourage and form strong social bonds with eachother.
Weta FX shared two videos of their work on Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes, I’m guessing to hype up for the Oscars special effects nomination. The comparison between real ape photos and Noa’s expressions were especially cool to see.
MY FAVOURITE SILLIES!! - Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus, Pongo abelii, Pongo tapanuliensis)
The Orangutan is a great ape that’s native to Borneo and Sumatra, depending on the species. They’re known most for their signature orange hair and gentle nature.
Why are they my favourite?
Flanges HEHEHE-
Flanges are the big flaps on either side of an adult male orangutan face. The development of these is due to hormonal changes in the male as it gets older, primarily testosterone, that is influenced not only by puberty but also by environmental factors. For this reason, not every orangutan male will develop Flanges when they reach maturity. Flanges are a sign of dominance and prowess in orangutans, so if there’s a flanged male around another growing male, that growing male may not develop flanges as a response to an already dominant orangutan being present. Though it’s not known exactly why this happens, it’s speculated it could be a bodily response meant to minimize conflict - a survival strategy for young males not to draw attention from bigger, stronger, already flanged males. These flanges not only look attractive to female orangutans and make them a better candidate for mating visually, but also actually help to amplify the male’s mating call when the time comes around, allowing the sound to reach longer distances. I just think they make them look so silly. They’re so round and fruit-shaped.
Gentle Giants <3
Because of their solitary lifestyle, orangutans rarely get into fights, and because they’re an arboreal species, they’re often away from ground predators and are rarely pressed for resources. This creates a very peaceful social structure that focuses more on opportunity than violent dominance displays - the dominance display is in the male’s anatomy. On top of this, the orangutan has shown to have extremely high empathy and intelligence, much like other apes, and between females who may live in mother daughter pairs, and males who are usually solitary, most of the displays they show when they encounter another orangutan are either comforting and friendly, or sexual in nature. They’re very seldom an aggressive creature. At least, compared to other apes.
Never too old for the comfort of a mother!
Orangutans are the longest nursing mammal, the babies breastfeeding for as long as 8 years before weaning entirely off of milk. And even then, most orangutans will usually stay with their mothers until they reach full maturity at 13-15 years old. From there, males usually flee to live on their own and find potential mates, and females may also choose to live solitarily but can also be observed living in small groups, pairs and threes, often with family members like mother and daughter duos.
Big sleepy babies…
The nests. Most primates build nests to sleep but I just think there’s something so funny about such a huge animal building a nest in a tree and sleeping in it. Plus have you seen images of orangutans sleeping? My heart can’t take it.
M A U R I C E
Iykyk.
MY FAVOURITE SILLIES!! - Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
The Chimpanzee is a great ape that’s native to the tropics of Africa, ranging from west to east, and can also be found in the savannahs of central and western Africa. They’re known most for their complex history alongside humans, and pioneering studies into what it means to be sentient.
Why are they my favourite?
The front of education!
Chimpanzees have been the pioneers for great ape education in and outside of zoos, and continue to this day to be one of the primary faces of anti-extinction campaigns due to their human-like qualities, allowing even the most stonehearted, cold bastards to sympathize. Hopefully.
Tools, toys, and teachers!
While many primates use tools, not many make toys out of objects from their habitat past throwing things. Adult Chimps will use sticks to fish termites from termite mounds, and others might use rocks to hunt small animals for protein. Baby chimps might use sticks as dolls to play with, or rocks to throw into water to make splashes. This is extremely advanced behavior that is taught to the children of the society by the adults, being passed down often from parents and mentors. This creates different cultures of tool use in different areas of chimpanzee societies, which is fascinating to observe.
IM SUCH A BIG MAN!
Male Chimpanzees will use dominance displays to help establish where they are in the hierarchy of their community over others. And while this is very serious work, and can sometimes be scary, for other chimps, I just think they look like they’re doing parkour a little bit, and it makes it so incredibly funny.
How I fell in love <3
This one is entirely personal, but when I was in college, in my animal behaviour class, I at the time only had a special interest in the Planet of the Apes remake franchise, and that was the reason I chose to do Chimpanzees as my behavioural research study. But through doing this research, I quickly found a love for the animal itself, and found myself deviating to tangents on other apes, as well as going on tangents learning about Chimps themselves. These guys are where it all started for me, and I wouldn’t change that for the world.
SOMEONE ELSE ON TUMBLR WHO KNOWS MONKEY WORLD/LIFE!!!!! I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE
YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE!!! MONKEY LIFE FANS RISE UP!!!!!!!! I'M GOING FOR MY BDAY THIS YEAR AND I'M SO EXCITED :D
Monkey Business and Monkey Life
Since the release of Kingdom last year, I've been watching ape documentaries. It's been fun because I realized how little I actually knew about chimps, orangs, and gorillas, despite loving the POTA series for so long.
I've now finished watching two shows, Monkey Business and Monkey Life. Both shows focus on the primate rescue center in the United Kingdom, Monkey World. Business was the first show, running for 9 seasons from 1998-2006; Life followed it, starting in 2007 and still running to this day, currently releasing their 17th season.
I wanted to highlight these two shows because of how long running they are. You really get to know individual primates and their care team. Seeing newly rescued chimps get settled into groups and get to live happy lives among their own kind always puts a smile on my face. I cried multiple times when apes or humans would pass away, even knowing I was watching old episodes and these incidents had happened years ago.
The humans who work at the center truly do all they can to help the animals in their care. They help primates overcome their trauma, hand-raise abandoned babies, and work hard to provide enrichment to liven up their days. The rehabilitation and release work they're doing in Vietnam, at their sister sanctuary Dao Tien, is incredible; seeing gibbons and other primates living free in the wild is truly heartwarming.
Monkey Business seems to only be available on Amazon Prime (from what I can find in the USA) but all of Monkey Life can be found on YouTube (the newest 17th season is currently airing in the UK but will be released to YouTube later). You can also buy DVDs of seasons from the Monkey World rescue center. The first season of Monkey Life was narrated by Andy Serkis, our beloved Caesar!
The official Planet Of The Apes social media is having some fun with recent news story. The monkeys that escaped weren't chimps; they wre rhesus macaque primates.
So not quite how the movies portray it but I still welcome our new primate overlords.
